How we reached the Information Age

As smartphone-carrying members of the Information Age, we often take for granted the fact that data has not always been so easily categorized for easy access and retrieval. Actually, there was a time when information as we know it didn’t even exist. Any thought or idea, no matter how small or significant, evaporated as soon as it originated. Before the dawn of speech, language, communication and documentation, there was no way of voicing, transferring and recording info. In James Gleick’s new book The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, the author details how humanity has learned to harness sounds, symbols and eventually logic itself to create and develop a complete theory of information. How far have humans come in their wielding of data, ideas and facts? What specific figures does Gleick examine in his book and why? How will information evolve in the future?